Wisconsin’s top headlines – April 21

An Ohio-based dairy has sued the state of Wisconsin over its ban on the sale of ungraded butter.

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, for the Western District of Wisconsin, Minerva Dairy argues that the ban is an anti-competitive restriction that protects Wisconsin based dairies while blocking sales from other states.

Similar lawsuits have been filed before. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection officials said they had not seen the Minerva lawsuit yet and could not comment on it.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent in March as employment grew by 16,400, according to figures released today by the state Department of Workforce Development.

The figures, compiled from a survey of 985 households, also showed unemployment declining by 10,300, to 107,100, and the state’s labor force participation rate ticking up 0.1 percentage point, to 68.4 percent.

GREEN BAY – Members of the City Council rejected a proposal Tuesday night to end their access to city health insurance.

Eliminating health benefits for City Council members would have saved little, but it would have been an important symbolic gesture, Alderman Joe Moore said.

“Every time there’s a budget shortfall, we ask the constituents to do without or maybe delay a project, we ask the staff not to fill positions or do without,” Moore said. “We’re asking everybody else to make sacrifices. Let’s put skin in the game.”

Gov. Scott Walker is open to amending a private school tuition tax benefit, two-thirds of which is going to families making more than $100,000 a year, though he isn’t seeking any particular changes himself.

In January the State Journal wrote about how the state is spending $8 million a year to subsidize private school tuition for families making more than $100,000.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s conservative majority threw out a petition to bar judges at all levels from hearing cases involving the largest donors to their election campaigns.

The court voted 5-2 on Thursday to reject a rule change suggested by 54 retired Wisconsin judges that would’ve required judges to recuse themselves if they have received campaign donations of certain sizes from any parties in a case. The suggested amounts ranged from $10,000 for state Supreme Court justices to $500 for municipal judges.